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English - Elective 3, topic 3: Language, Politics and
Discourse

Course content

It is generally recognized that language has a significant role
in politics. Negative implications of this have been the most
striking: concepts like spin, newspeak and manipulation abound in
discussions about political communication. This puts an obligation
on language specialists to use their analytic abilities also in
ways that can promote transparency in political discussions and
throw light on how language actually works in a political
context.

This task comes under the broad heading of ‘discourse analysis’.
One type of discourse analysis, known as ‘Critical Discourse
Analysis’ is a continuation of a critical tradition that started in
the sixties and seventies, where the aim is to focus attention on
ideology and on the way power is used and especially abused. While
this course will also have a critical orientation, it stresses the
need to understand political language as communication and see it
in relation to the pressures that the political process is working
under (including pressures due to the facts on the ground). Basic
principles of rhetorical analysis will also be introduced.

As a label for the analytic method described above, the approach
may be called ‘functional-pragmatic discourse analysis’:
‘Functional’ indicates that the analysis seeks to throw light on
the job that the texts are assumed to do; ‘pragmatic’ indicates
that the analysis refers to key aspects of the context in which the
texts belong. As part of this programme, the course also takes up
the principles and practices of democratic politics: an awareness
of the way the world works in the domain of investigation is a
prerequisite for understanding how language functions in that
context.

On the basis of central concepts, analytical practices and
positions the course aims to stimulate an analytic practice that
reflects an awareness of the grounds on which one may legitimately
be critical both of politicians and of their critics ( including
the ‘commentariat’), when analysing language used in a political
context.

Please note that discourse analysis is a sprawling field, and
vast numbers of books and articles can be found, also on the Net.
But be aware (as stressed in the first item on the bibliography)
that not all items live up to the term ‘analysis’: make sure your
own efforts are worthy of the name!